Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Hold onto your hats folks, and if your delicate constitution can't handle too much seriously sumptuous food p*rn in one sitting, you may need to take this one a course at a time...

But first, here's a quick blow-by-blow of the first few eats of 2010 - mostly verbal as I'm out of the swing of photographing the more monotonous meals:

NB: I'm including a small amount of vegetables every day to ease the transition from over-consumption of fruit and nuts over Christmas. I'm feeling really good even with a bit of salad, so we'll see how that goes. The extra weight is dropping steadily even with a few carbs, so...

1/1/10

Fried eggs for brekkyRoast lamb in juices/gravy for lunchablesItty bitty prawns in a bed of sautéed red cabbage and steamed zucchini for din-dins

Third - at a friend's wedding: fish fillet, lamb rump, and butter (and yes, even with clear RSVP instructions and a bride very familiar with my preferences, the kitchen staff STILL screwed it all up, originally reporting my needs as "no meat or cream" and, even after correction, bringing me a plate of salad coated in sticky dressing. All's well in the end though, and it was a truly beautiful wedding.

Trying my hand at salmon sashimi! I sliced my salmon fillet thinly after removing the skin, and sat the pieces in a bowl of lemon juice to 'cook' in the citric acid. I was then distracted by my company, so the pieces were a little overcooked in appearance, but utterly perfect in flavour. I'm definitely adding this way of enjoying salmon to my weekly rotation - grilling fillets no longer inspires me, but the beau won't eat raw fish.

I used the pieces in a sashimi salad - salmon, salmon roe, mixed lettuce, capsicum, and snap peas. Divine!

Course The Fourth:

I'm still trying to think of a name for this experiment, and I'm currently leaning toward Minced Beef Medley, or some such. I originally intended to use minced roo meat, but the package we bought was past its expiry date, and also past its smelling-good date, so it went into the bin and the hurried thawing of organic beef mince began.

First I sautéed a diced red onion and a diced red capsicum (bell pepper) in some butter, until slightly softened. While they cooked I attempted to separate an iceberg lettuce into cups, but I bought a particularly inter-folded head, making separation impossible. Instead, I ripped up each mangled leaf and laid the pieces across a platter, adding some fresh basil leaves.

Putting the onion & capsicum into a bowl, I sautéed the beef mince until cooked, adding extra butter, plus some thyme and garlic. If I were to make it again, I'd add a few more flavourings, such as cumin, but I kept it simple since we'd had some spice in the soup and chicken course already.

I then layered the cooked beef across the salad leaves, topping it off with the capsicum & onion. Light yet satisfying; simple yet delicious.

Course The Last:

After gazing many a time at Dr. A's decadent Black Forest Gateau used for the title image of The Comfort Eater's Diet blog, I decided to take a crack at the 'how is it possible?' recipe:

2 cups whipped heavy creamFresh raspberries and blueberries, or frozen berries that have been thawed in the refrigerator.

(Please note when viewing my photos, I had to thaw raspberries and due to time constraints did not have a chance to let them cool, hence the flood of raspberry cream down the back of the cake. Still delicious, of course!)

Method:

Preheat oven to 175degC.

Combine eggs, cocoa, and sweetener in a bowl, using an electric whisk.

Pour mix into a square or rectangular baking dish - I used a square glass dish, about 20cm x 20cm (8" x 8"). No need to grease it, but you can line it with baking paper if it's an old dish.

Bake in the oven until risen and firm to the touch.

Remove and allow to cool.

When cake is cool, slice in half horizontally (and I also sliced my square in half length-ways to make four rectangles)

Place a piece on a platter, then top with 1/4 of the whipped cream (or until covered) and a layer of berries. I alternated between blueberries and raspberries.

Repeat by placing another piece of cake on top of the berries, then topping with cream and berries. Repeat twice more until cake is complete.

This cake is rich and filling, and could serve six greedy people comfortably, or more depending on the size of your baking dish (thinner, longer rectangles would feed more, due to ease of slicing).

Each course was received with an 'ooh' of visual appreciation, and then near-silence during consumption - a more meaningful sign of enjoyment to the chef than immediate verbal feedback! All dishes were praised, particularly the soup, and my guests could not comprehend that the cake was truly made with just eggs and cocoa! "But how does it stay together? Why isn't it all eggy? Didn't it need some almond flour or something? How did it puff up?" :)

And after five courses of food, no one felt stuffed or bloated, as you would had their been bread/grains/starches involved I'm sure, and only the dessert left us feeling full and a little overwhelmed, but not lethargic in any sense!

16 comments:

It's obvious that you love cooking! Congratulations on a great looking dinner party - esp the cake. Did it taste like regular cake, or better? The texture? I wonder about using sweeteners for no reason other than people might detect that it's sweetener and not sugar like they're used to...you know how fussy people who eat super-sweet pseudo food all the time can be! You've been very inspiring and your blog has lots of helpful info. Thanks - sometimes it's good to hop on the net and have a look at what you've been up to and get some motivation. I had a bit of a look through your old posts and esp at your before and after photos - what a transformation! I hope you got masses of compliments at Christmas? I used to love it when I'd go home for the hols and everyone would ooh and aah at the weight I'd lost (which of course hasn't happened for a while...but it will).

It's been over a year since I had 'regular cake', but my company of carb-o-holics loved it! The texture was probably denser than your average sponge, but not so dense as even the fluffiest pancakes. And the mix was delectably smooth too... I'm making more tonight - I'll pay extra attention ;)

The sugar-holic beau of mine can't often tell when I use sweeteners - once I used maple syrup and he claimed that the taste was 'too fake' ;) As long as you combine sugar alcohols/stevia to defend against aftertastes, then most palates won't pick up the difference. I'd add that the cake tasted like dark dairy chocolate to me, but the others felt it was much darker with a bitter edge rather than sweet (counter-acted when the berries were included in the bites).

I was expecting lots of feedback from my family at Christmas, but I didn't receive much other than my loud-mouthed mid-teen cousin blurting out "Have you lost weight?" during a conversation focussed elsewhere. My grandfather also told my Mum that I had grown into a "beautiful young woman" so that may be his way of saying that he noticed my fat loss. But no, not as much positive feedback as I had hoped, and no sense of congratulation. Ah well. I guess Aussies just aren't big on celebrating achievement - blame Tall Poppy Syndrome :)

Hopefully my continuing efforts this year will mean that I'm in perfect shape by next Christmas, so they will have no excuses! (And plus I'll prove that I am unlike my aunt who has yo-yo'd her way from itsy-bitsy to curvy and back so many times that we've given up pointing out her successes. She was particularly thin this year too, so she stole a bit of my thunder!) :)

Nice work with the Choc-Blueberry Pie! I keep using sweeter berries in my mix, such as raspberries, so that I don't have to add so much sweetener. I use erythritol too, as well as stevia, and sometimes extended with a little xylitol. Sugar alcohols are so unpredictable - a definite YMMV. I've heard of people for whom even erythritol causes blood sugar levels to climb (as well as some whose blood glucose level drops thanks to conditioned insulin production linked to any sweet taste, poor things!) and some who can take even evil maltitol without it impacting blood glucose. I'm not sure how each sweetener affects me personally; I just try to eat only whole foods and avoid all of that as often as possible.

You should definitely have a go at the egg + cocoa = chocolate cake, it's similar in flavour as the pie except without the nuts, though you could easily sprinkle nuts with the fruit layers!

Oh wow... I tried the first part of the recipe, without the whipped cream and just berries, and it is fantastic. I actually did not get to try the recipe in full since the cake itself was so good...I added half a banana and a few nuts and passed them into the blender. Thank you for this great recipe, we just discovered your blog, and will definitely try other things that you make. MG

How many cup of Cocoa you've used for the egg-cocoa-cake recipe and any specific type of cocoa? I've tried the recipe using 1 cup full of cocoa powder and 1 table spoon of honey with 6 eggs, it came out VERY bitter, what am I doing wrong?

Yep, 1 cup of cocoa - I've used conventional unsweetened cocoa, raw cacao powder, and some fancy European cocoa - all worked out perfectly. I would suspect your culprit is honey, which isn't much of a sweetener. I would combine a couple of natural sweeteners perhaps - mix some berry juice with the honey? I usually use sugar alcohols such as xylitol, so that my blood glucose response is minimised, but that's also why my desserts are rarely consumed by me ;) If you want to stick to honey, I'd experiment with upping the amount in the cake, and maybe drizzle some in the berry layer as well... I'd love to hear how you go!

Whipping cream is easy - just grab your whisk (i.e. electric beaters in this modern world) and go to town on the cream in a big bowl until the whole lot is stiff. You don't need to add sugar - that's typically what people do when they are serving whipped cream with a dessert, but it's not necessary (or healthy!). I've added erythritol to my cream before, but not lately. If I want to add some extra flavour to the whip I add a dash of vanilla and some cinnamon.

I have been looking for a chocolate dessert recipe and can't wait to try the cake. Can I use agave as the sweetener? I have never baked primal or used any primal sweeteners so I am clueless when it comes to now much to use. I am making it for by non- primal eating brother and sister in laws in a effort to convince them to try going paleo or primal. Please advise...thanks:)also Love your blog.

Hi there! Agave is pretty much the same as High Fructose Corn Syrup, when you look at the production process and nutritional information. You'd be better off using a whole sweetener like honey or more fruit, or maybe maple syrup as it is high in minerals despite its processed nature. I would use maple syrup if I were to make the cake now.

In terms of quantity, the only way to tell is to add a small amount and then do a taste test. I'm not afraid of raw egg, so I happily taste uncooked batter. If you can detect any sweetness above the cocoa, then you're good to go.

Girl Gone Paginatin'

Girl Gone Searchin'

I cut out grains, sugar and starches at the beginning of 2009. I have been keeping a journal as I have progressively shed my bulges and my processed foods. I am aiming to live a clean, primal lifestyle, and I wish to share my eating habits with those who wish to clean up their lifestyle and live happily and healthfully. As the cliche states - if I can do it, so can everybody else.